Match Report : 24/10/2015

24 October 2015

Jamie Vardy’s second half strike was the difference between the two sides as Leicester City edged out Palace by a single goal.

The England striker capitalised on some hesitancy in the Eagles’ defence to sneak in and poach another goal, and it proved to be the decisive moment in a game that won’t live long in the memory as Alan Pardew’s side failed to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat to West Ham United.

It kicked off amongst a cauldron of noise but it was the home fans who were nearly celebrating on six minutes. Marc Albrighton was given the freedom of the King Power Stadium to casually cut inside from his right wing and upon approaching the area, he miscued a tame shot that Wayne Hennessey thought was trickling wide.

However the ball struck the base of the post, spun behind the Welshman and landed nicely for Riyad Mahrez who, thankfully for the Eagles, screwed the second attempt wide of the far post.

That would be as close as either side would come during the opening half, however the chances continued to fall to the Foxes. N’Golo Kante watched an attempted curler sail over the bar before a fierce strike by Danny Drinkwater was fortunately straight at Hennessey.

With two of the most attacking sides in the division facing each other, the opening 45 minutes was something of a damp squib played out in weather to match, and Palace’s only effort of the first half arrived when

Yohan Cabaye trickled one from distance straight into the arms of Kasper Schmeichel.

Leicester pressure continued after the restart and Jeffrey Schlupp skidded a shot wide of the mark from 20 yards 10 minutes into the second half, but on 58 minutes they eventually took the lead.

Scott Dann attempted to head the ball across the pitch to his centre-half partner Brede Hangeland but the ball bounced awkwardly in front of the Norwegian and allowed Vardy to slip in, dink the ball over the advancing Hennessey and beat Dann to smash it home and score for the seventh Premier League game in a row.

Palace finally forced Schmeichel into a decent save on 68 minutes when Bakary Sako let fly from the corner of the box and forced the Foxes keeper into a smart diving save to push the fizzing strike to safety, but the red-hot Vardy had a chance to add a second but saw it sail over from a similar position.

The Eagles came ever so close to equalising with 15 to play when a corner was met by the head of Patrick Bamford who forced Schmeichel into a brilliant reaction stop, and with the ball pinging around the area Dann then saw a header cleared off the line by Christian Fuchs.

As they piled bodies forward the visitors had two late penalty appeals turned down when Wilfried Zaha was adjudged to have dived by Mike Dean and another call for a pull on Bamford was also waved away as a frustrating afternoon for Pardew’s side came to a close.